I'm sure there's a saying that suggests one way to tell whether someone will be a good politician is by reading the comments section of his weblog. If not, there should be.
Since John Murden of the Church Hill People's News decided recently to throw his hat into the race for Delores McQuinn's soon-to-be vacated City Council seat, the comments have gone wild at Style Weekly and on Murden's CHPN site.
Among my favorite comments coming out of left field is this one from the Style comment section: "John Murden's blog is a poisonous, malicious addition to Church Hill."
But more representative may be the more grown up discussion at CHPN, which recently included this exchange:
Poison indeed. We need more poison of the CHPN nature in Richmond, if a space where people actually engage in thoughtful debate is poisonous.
points to consider;
1.In the past John Murden has put forth the position that he, by virtue of his publishing this blog site, is a legitimate journalist. If this is the case I expect he will give up any and all control of this site, as it would be unethical not to do so.
2. With no offence intended to Mr. Murden, I am curious to know the basis of his support I have seen here. I have seen John at many meetings and never heard him voice any opinion at all on the topics discussed. Nor do I recall him taking any definitive stand on any issues discussed in this forum. It would seem to me that an intellgent voter would at least want to know a candidates stand on vital issues before throwing any support their way.
With no offense intended to Rubberneck, I would think that the opposite would be true — that one wouldn’t want a highly opinionated councilperson who brought their own agenda to the table — rather, one would want a councilperson with their finger on the pulse of the community, someone who is a good listener and observant steward of the community’s wants and needs. I think John would be the perfect person for that job.